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During last year's end of April holiday, we hired a mini digger to build a pond and dug a rough hole.
We weren't expecting the next step to take over a year to get around to! Having decided that our rough hole in the ground wouldn't really cut it, we bit the bullet and hired 2 men who knew what they were doing with a digger, and who turned the rough hole into this:
They added a shelf along one side and a shallow area at one end which will become a bog garden. We covered the excavation with a layer of sand:
We created a wall to separate the pond from the bog garden:
My parents came over for a pond-lining party:
During the course of last Sunday we got the underlay and liner in place and began to fill the pond.
The bog garden got a filling with water to flatten the liner. This will be pumped out when we create the bog:
The other half and I still have to conclude our argument about where to build up a rockery for a waterfall that will go around/down the middle of/next to the bog garden and I think we need to increase the height of the wall and shore up a low point in the banking, but it's already been idyllic to sit on the edge of the pond in the sunshine, dangling our feet in the water and watching the sky reflected in the water's ripples, and the water reflected on the branches of the willows at the edge of the pond.
It's now payday and my fingers are itching to get out my bank card and splurge on plants! I can't wait to see it planted up and see what moves in!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
The second lily has showed itself
as has the newly-put-in water hawthorn
The first fringe lily flower is up
The snails have been *very* busy making babies
and yesterday I spotted something about the size of a Viking longboat that turned out to be a lesser diving beetle larva.
Lovely pictures, Maisie - you're making me wish that you and your lovely pond were just around the corner from me so I could pop in and take a look!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
You'd be more than welcome Clare! Alan, I've just been out there enjoying the sun and trying in vain to get photos of a dragonfly the size and speed of a Chinook.
The only dragonfly I can think of that would be the size of a Chinook is....well.....a dragon. I'm not quite sure I'd want to get close enough to such a thing to get photos!!
Seriously, though, I don't think I've ever taken a holiday in your part of the world, Maisie. I might have to look at that. I can recommend holidaying in my part of the world - the East Anglian coast is very beautiful.
I'm playing with font colours as you can probably tell!
Still haven't got any photos of the Chinook, but I have got some photos of things that stay still more...
Fringe lily doing well :)
The white lily (the one the aquatics centre chap picked out for me as having leaves most like the giant Amazon lilies with their ribbing) is also flowering prolifically
The first variable-flowered lily has finally popped, having taunted me for DAYS with a big, fat closed bud
The red-leaved lily is still taunting me!
All the lilies have got plenty of leaves now in lovely colours
The pond ecosystem is also doing well. The water is becoming clearer and cleared, and there are more boatpeople that Vietnam...
and lots of diving beetles
and a whole host of whirligig beetles
All lilies have flowered. The final one's first flower is a bit oddly-shaped so I haven't taken a photo yet, but the second-to-last is pretty spectacular!
All in all, everything's starting to look very well-established now
It's a shame the surrounding area is now overgrown and untidy, but that will have to wait for some free time to strim etc.
I don't know if the sunlight (and UV) is responsible, or the snails, or the plants, but the water is EXTREMELY clear at the moment, which meant that this morning I had a great view of MY FIRST FROGGIE! Saw a huge chap briefly under one of the clumps of oxygenating plants before he retreated further under.
Unfortunately I can't get access to your spectacular lily pic M but the rest look fabulous - try to get pic of your froggie for us to see!
It's amazing how well it's done in such a short time, Maisie. You'd think it had been there for years! Don't worry about the surrounding area; it doesn't look untidy, just natural, and the wildlife will love it like that. Looks like a good place for a wild flower meadow patch. Thanks for sharing the development; please keep updating us!
The pond really is AMAZINGLY clear at the moment! You can see the whole bottom. Nevertheless I still haven't spotted that froggie again yet! I have spotted a myriad of baby ramshorn snails (after me worrying that they'd all been eaten by something) and lots of amusing water beetles scooting around the place.
I think I may have to put some netting over the pond soon. Mr and Mrs Woodpigeon have decided to build the usual Woodpigeon half-baked nest in the willow.. right over the pond!
I have to admit it's lovely to get some nice weather to sit by the pond and enjoy the sun and the view. The garden's really parched though so a bit of rain would be nice.